Re: Custom undocumented(7)s are just as bad.
>>"Seth" == Seth R Arnold <sarnold@willamette.edu> writes:
>> Question: would the distribution quality really suffer if we
>> did alienate them?
Seth> Probably not, at least right away. However, in the long run, if
Seth> Debian gets a reputation for being beligerant to its
Seth> developers, people might move to other distros or other free
Seth> unices -- depriving Debian of perhaps their future good work.
We are not being beligerant. We are merely asking for
competence. And not knowing how to write a man page is not something
bad (no one was born knowing everything) -- but the unwillingness to
learn pod2man in order to write one, well, how useful would their
future good work be? (1/2 ;-)
Mind you, we have people of the calibre of Bear Giles and
Raphael Manfredi who have expressed an interest in working for
Debian. I think that it will be a long while before we have to lower
our standards for the lack of competent developers.
Seth> I am just not a fan of "if you can't figure it out, then drop out" --
Seth> perhaps a softer wording would be more to my tastes. :)
Perhaps. If I was addressing an individual, rather than
formulating a genralism, I would have been more tactful. But the
point remains: if we are indeed striving for the +best_ possible
distribution, we have to draw the line somewhere on maintainer
competence. I'm sorry for being blunt. But excellence is a worthy
goal.
Yes, it makes for a less warm-fuzzy project -- but when warm
fuzzy interferes with quality of the project, well .. you know what
my reaction is.
manoj
--
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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